And with signs the economy is not rolling over, markets have
settled down considerably.

In a note to clients on Sunday, Don Rissmiller at Strategas
Research Partners captured this shift in markets and the data
that has brought us seemingly calmer waters.

Rissmiller writes (emphasis added):

The case that the U.S. is in an economic recession is fading,
with continued growth in payroll employment in Feb. True, the BLS
jobs report was not universally good. But, so far, there hasn't
been the contagion from financial strain that would link Wall St
and Main St. in a negative feedback loop. That doesn’t mean risk
assets have a clear path forward from here. But of the 3 major
sources of uncertainty: oil, China & the Fed, there isn’t a
lot of new worry now.

A better characterization of the U.S. economic data today
is that it has gone from "mixed to bad" to "mixed to
good." That's a subtle change, but markets care about
the second derivative. Investors may be cautious in what they pay
for slowing earnings growth. But stable-to-accelerating numbers
are a different story.

That's the whole thing: "mixed to good" from "mixed to bad."

It wasn't that investors needed to know we'd see a huge uptick in
US or global economic growth, but simply have their fears about
another recession — or worse — allayed. And that's what we
got.

And so as a US recession has become a more remote possibility,
markets have begun perking back up with US and global stocks
rallying about 5% over the last month.

US Treasury yields have started backing up again after a rally to
start the year was bolstered by the market's belief the Federal
Reserve would be paralyzed on policy this year.